50 SHADES OF GARY

After mini-stroke on sideline in 2013, Kubiak now in Supe in first season with Broncos

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Twenty-seven months ago, it would have been hard to imagine Gary Kubiak on the sideline of the Super Bowl, or any sideline for that matter.

Kubiak, then the head coach of the Texans, suffered a transient ischemic attack, or mini-stroke, on Nov. 3, 2013, during a nationally televised game against the Colts. Kubiak took a few weeks off then got back to coaching. But he changed his style.

“I don’t think it changed me as a person,” Kubiak, who has led Denver to the Super Bowl in his first season with the team, said Tuesday. “I think after going through that and talking to a lot of doctors there in Houston and those types of things, I think it made me change a little bit as a coach and how I go about things.”

When Kubiak examined how he was going about his job, he saw he was doing too much and not delegating enough to his assistants.

“I know exactly why it happened, because I go back and I know what I was doing and what I was putting myself through [and] trying to do too much,” Kubiak said. “[I] kind of ran myself into the ground a little bit. I’ve tried to do things different. I still — I mean, I love the work, so I’m going to be up early in the morning working the hours, but I’ve also tried to go about it a little bit of [a] different way — not try to take on everything myself and understand I’ve got good people with me.

“I think it has helped me. I think passing through Baltimore [as offensive coordinator in 2014], working with a great organization, great staff there helped me, I’ve taken a lot of that with me here to Denver. So, if anything, it just changed how I do things more than anything.”

Kubiak was fired by Houston during the 2013 season, after a 2-11 start. He spent one year as John Harbaugh’s offensive coordinator in Baltimore before reuniting with John Elway in Denver. Kubiak, who was Elway’s backup in the 1980s, jumped at the chance to return to the Broncos. One year later he has Denver back in the Super Bowl.

“Did I think I would get another opportunity? I don’t know, but I knew I loved the work, and I felt good about continuing to go,” Kubiak said. “I think I’ve got a lot of time left in me. I just think I was very fortunate [that] my next opportunity came at a very special place. And I’ve said that over and over again, but me working for [Harbaugh] — for that organization, for [Ravens general manager] Ozzie Newsome, for [Ravens owner] Steve Bisciotti — really helped me as a football coach watching them operate, watching them do things and have a chance to come back here with [Elway], I feel very fortunate. So, I’d answer that by saying I just feel fortunate that I have gotten another chance — a lot of coaches don’t.”

The Broncos players all had praise for Kubiak this week.

“That’s exactly what he is — a normal, laid-back, honest, straight-ahead guy,” cornerback Aqib Talib said. “He’s just been straightforward with us, tell us what he expects out of us and that’s what we give him. He’s a real laid-back coach. He lets us be men and he runs our team perfectly.”

brian.costello@nypost.com